Homesteaders

[Molpet]

I agree. It seems to stem from a pervasive culture shift from city dweller to urban dweller and their thoughts and ideas that are imposed upon people who were raised deeply in the country. Like peer pressure, if you will. I encountered the same thing at work when someone asked me what I intended to do with all the chickens I was raising(where I lived very few people free ranged a chicken flock, so my house was very much an item of curiosity for the community). I told them we sold and ate the eggs and killed nonlayers and extra roosters for the meat. You would have thought I had told them I was eating human babies after cooking them on a spit over an open flame....the shock, the anger and abuse I took over those simple statements of fact~and this in a previously VERY agricultural community and most of these people owning commercial poultry houses, at that)~was astonishing.

When I pointed out how cruelly were those chickens kept that were raised in their commercial poultry houses and how those people still ate them, they all replied with the same word. Wherever I encounter that attitude and challenge them to think about where their chicken they eat all the time derives they all use the same wording...it's like they've all taken some mind control drug or course that causes them to use the same phrasing.....the phrase? "That's different."

Different from what, I always ask? The reply...."It's just different. Those chickens don't have names and I didn't raise them from little babies or kill them with my own hands!" What really slays me about that kind of thinking is that they justify cruelty to animals if they cannot see it happening or if no one discusses it and they will gladly eat the carcasses of those dead as long as they didn't have names or weren't raised at home. What kind of thinking is that?????

It's definitely a peer pressure thing, driven by the media, to downgrade and call cruel those people who kill their own animals~named or not~for mercy or for food.

I had a discussion with a lady at the Humane Society about a dog, a stray that needed a home~NOT mine. I called them up and they said they didn't have room and if I brought it to them they would just have to euthanize it. I replied that was fine, we'd just kill it here and save me the 20 mi. drive. The girl got really nasty and acted like I was being cruel to kill the dog here instead of driving it all the way in town so THEY could kill it. I asked her what was the difference, either way the dog dies quickly and humanely. She couldn't really give me a logical answer to that, even though I described how quickly they died when shot in the head at close range with a shotgun....by the time I was done she was assuring me I could bring the dog to them and it would NOT be put down at their facility. They threaten to kill the dog and they are good people. I threaten to kill the dog and they act like I'm a murderer.

Logic is dead.

it is illegal to kill a pet here in my county in IL

.... but can still kill one caught in the act of killing livestock.. also can't leave a dog outside or tied up for more than 15 min during certain hours 'with out adequate shelter' but someone w/a dog house got in trouble last winter so not sure what shelter is good enough... leash law, which applies to cats and dogs... but these laws are on a complaint basis.
N IL is way too urban.
ETA I have almost 10 acres and am not supposed to have roos or turkeys or anything but hens.. and hens were just made legal this spring .. the property does have a grand ftathered horse exception

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Lol ok, I see where your comming from. Yes those people are idiots and I get a lot of joy in life poking holes in their logic. However I do not think the name holding importance originated with these people. It always has held a significance, these people just twist it until something becomes illogical.
My grandma did not name her chickens, she would have considered naming anything that was not meant as a pet ridiculous. I doubt she even named her cats, that is something children did.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

A bit off subject, but what and where does everyone go to buy processing equipment? What we have desperately needs replacing, it is a hazard.
I was looking at Cabela's, they have propane cook stoves, but I want to make sure if it spend the money I get exactly what I want.
Specifically I need something to boil my water and good knives, my kitchen knives are lacking.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I just have to ask....I've asked others on BYC and other forums where this idea seems to reign supreme,but they couldn't give me a logical answer to it.  Why does an animal with a name have any greater value or be less easy to butcher than an animal without a name?        It's just a word that one assigns to a creature, but other than that it holds no magical powers that would prevent that animal from becoming food, nor does it put any special value on that animal emotionally...at least, logically it shouldn't. 

I name mine, even the ones I know I'm eating. I have a strange way of thinking though. I name them and praise them for their life all the way up until butcher day. Then I personalize the end of life prayer for each. To me (and my family) they are pets with a purpose. We have only animals with a purpose here. The cat saves me on chicken feed cost by eating the critters that eat the feed. The cat also alerts the dog if there is a problem outside so the dog can alert me. The dog's protect the family and the chickens. The chickens are fun, therapy and health. The kids understand the chickens are a way of life not a "awww how cute ".

 

[lcertuche]

I was raised to know where meat comes from and so now that we have chickens, and hopefully a few rabbits soon my children will know. I live in a rural area and no one would ever act weird over putting meat in the freezer. I recently talked to a neighbor that rescues abandoned dogs. When I mentioned to him that it was better to kill a dog rather than dump it on the road, he agreed completely. If more people considered that cute little puppies grow up and eat a lot. They required vaccinations, food, collars, housing, etc. before they take in a pup.

 

[Beekissed]

A bit off subject, but what and where does everyone go to buy processing equipment? What we have desperately needs replacing, it is a hazard.
I was looking at Cabela's, they have propane cook stoves, but I want to make sure if it spend the money I get exactly what I want.
Specifically I need something to boil my water and good knives, my kitchen knives are lacking.

I love RADA brand knives for all purposes...they are cheap and last a life time, but also serve as our kitchen knives, so are used on a daily basis. http://www.radacutlery.com/

Not sure about the rest, as I rarely ever pluck chickens anymore but just skin them. When we plucked I just used a bag of charcoal under our apple butter kettle to get the right temps for scalding.

 

[rancher hicks]

Dare I say....... On a personal level, I don't name every chicken I have. Nor do I intend to eat any chicken I have. Not as long as there is a grocery store. For me chickens that get names become pets. We humans are not all alike in the emotional nor even the merciful department. Seems to me some folks think they're being merciful when they're being cruel. I suppose the reverse is true too.

Some cops as recent news has brought to light are not tender and loving. Though they can be they generally aren't imo. IMO they are the modern equivalent of the Centurions of the bible. I do think they can be gentle and still do their jobs. Seems like they can't control their anger emotions.

SOME doctors and nurses are not only cold on the job they are emotionally cold off the job. Fact is doctors who disassociate themselves from their patients miss a great deal in diagnosing things. I prefer my doctor to see me as a human being not a thing. I'm not above changing doctors. Nurses on the other hand can be tender and have feelings. Crying in private is not a sin.

Had an ENT when I mentioned ringing in my ears say. "You have tinnitus, there's nothing you can do about it! turned and walked right out. No explanations just matter of fact told me "tough!" I never saw her again. There is a thing called compassion and she clearly did not have it.

Some folks just don't "feel" the way others do. Of course some folks couldn't cook, sew, garden, etc. etc. Some folks understand computers but can't grow a tomato. Some folks can raise chickens and others can build houses. Seems to me it keeps us needing one another.

I guess my point is we are not all the same Thank God. What a horrible world it would be if we were.

 

[rancher hicks]

Lol ok, I see where your comming from. Yes those people are idiots and I get a lot of joy in life poking holes in their logic. However I do not think the name holding importance originated with these people. It always has held a significance, these people just twist it until something becomes illogical.
My grandma did not name her chickens, she would have considered naming anything that was not meant as a pet ridiculous. I doubt she even named her cats, that is something children did.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Lol ok, I see where your comming from. Yes those people are idiots and I get a lot of joy in life poking holes in their logic. However I do not think the name holding importance originated with these people. It always has held a significance, these people just twist it until something becomes illogical.

My grandma did not name her chickens, she would have considered naming anything that was not meant as a pet ridiculous. I doubt she even named her cats, that is something children did.

Excuse me?  In you opinion they're idiots, that doesn't make it so. IMO folks who hold no emotional attachment to animals as pets or can't are psychopaths. Emphasis on "diminished empathy", "disinhibited" and "bold behavior." 

[COLOR=222222]Psychopathy[/COLOR][COLOR=222222] (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/), also known as—though sometimes differentiated from—sociopathy (/soʊsiˈɒpəθi/), is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior.[/COLOR]

A person who believes it is ok to eat a chicken raised in a conventional large farm (I am in no way saying every bird is treated the same, but many of those birds are in intolerable conditions) but not ok, and somehow cruel to kill your own birds for eating because it is somehow "different", is an idiot. Being capable of killing birds I raise does not make me a psychopath. I do it so my family can eat a healthy bird that lived a good life. You can turn a blind eye and eat a cruelty treated animal, fine, but you cannot call me psycho for choosing to not to support that kind of market.

 

[Beekissed]

Excuse me? In you opinion they're idiots, that doesn't make it so. IMO folks who hold no emotional attachment to animals as pets or can't are psychopaths. Emphasis on "diminished empathy", "disinhibited" and "bold behavior."

Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/), also known as—though sometimes differentiated from—sociopathy (/soʊsiˈɒpəθi/), is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior.

So...in your opinion, people who don't make every animal a pet and attach emotions to it are psychopaths? Truly, we are living in the times when they will call evil good and good evil.

Sure hope all those psychopaths who kill your grocery store meat for you every day keep being all crazy or you will surely have to become a vegan.

Going to the extremes doesn't make a point, it is merely going to extremes. A person isn't a psychopath if they don't get emotional over every animal they raise and kill for food, no more than you are an ultra compassionate and well balanced human for doing just the opposite. There are just people who will kill their own food and people who will not....not cannot....will not. No need to attach any labels to either one for their choices.